82 posts categorized "Cool Software"

Friday, 23 September 2016

With reality capture becoming an important part of CAD/BIM any advance of this technology should be of interest. Imagine a technology sensing physical geometry, human biometrics, even touch device input and speech remotely. Then imagine it doesn’t require any new hardware installation to generate this information, just to capture it…

Have a listen to this BBC podcast from 04:30 through 15:00 about what researchers are finding by analysing Wi-Fi signal interference. This is not device tracking or dependent on beacons, just the ambient Wi-Fi now present in almost every building and lots of public spaces.

For those who don’t know Dr Karl he’s got an amazingly broad science knowledge, per this summary from his wiki bio:

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, often referred to as "Dr Karl", is a well-known Australian science communicator and populariser, who is known as an author and science commentator on Australian radio and television.

Has Bachelor of Science majoring in physics, Bachelor of Medicine and a Bachelor of Surgery, awarded a Master of Biomedical Engineering & is currently the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow in the Science Foundation for Physics at the School of Physics, University of Sydney.

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

It took me a while to get the release Windows 10 installed on hardware which does it justice. I’d been trying the ‘insider’ builds on an old machine which only gave me a chance truly test one aspect of Microsoft’s latest operating system: how well it runs on minimal spec hardware.

I thought it was impressive Windows 10 installed on a 4 year old Netbook—Atom processor, 2GB ram, 1024x600 screen—at all, let alone run acceptably! It was useful to evaluate the desktop focused user interface improvements in 10, if not their performance.

Fixing Windows 8(.1) for the desktop?

Although it seems few ‘desktop’ users liked Windows 8 UI, on a touch machine the radical changes from 7 mostly made sense. Perhaps the biggest fault was a reliance on ‘discovery’ of the fly-out controls/menus and, even in 8.1, dismal explanation of the changes for new/migrating users.

I’m one of the minority who preferred 8, even more so 8.1, on a desktop too. With frequently used apps pinned to the taskbar I rarely used the Start menu in 7. In 8 I found the ability to configure and name tile groups for lesser used apps on the Start Screen far more convenient than 7 Starts limited pinned icons, apps list or (even worse) a desktop full of application icons.

Yes, 8 jarred when the full screen menu appeared but the ‘Use desktop background” Start option introduced in 8.1 helped with that. The option to launch direct to the desktop meant you could almost avoid the Start screen altogether if the desktop was your focus.

Irrespective of that, and given the market reaction, Microsoft had to ‘fix’ 8 and their focus on the desktop in 10 is entirely understandable.

The thing I most worried about through the 10 preview was touch as it didn’t seem to get much attention until late in the process. Now I have the release 10 on my ATIV hybrid tablet I’m happy to find ‘fixing’ the desktop, ‘restoring’ the Start menu, hasn’t broken the touch interface.

Get Ready for REAL 2016 by taking a look back at last year’s ground breaking summit. The inaugural year of REAL was an amazing exploration of the convergence of 3d sensing, making & visualization. Relive and experience leading designers, artists, entrepreneurs & educators discussing the latest innovations in this 3D revolution.

There’s more info on the Hololens hardware — the first fully untethered, see-through ‘holographic’ computer that will arrive with Windows 10 — in the video below:

“Windows 10 is the first platform to support holographic computing with APIs that enable gaze, gesture, voice, and environmental understanding on an untethered device. Microsoft HoloLens, together with Windows 10, will bring high‑definition holograms to life in your world”

Friday, 10 October 2014

I arrived back from Tibet to find some very welcome news from Shaan Hurley. Autodesk now provides students, teachers and schools WORLDWIDE with free* access to Autodesk software: 3-year licenses of 80 titles of the exact same software that our commercial customers use.

Hooray! I have been anxiously awaiting this for years. Effective today, Autodesk provides FREE access to our software to students, teachers and schools around the world. If you are an engineering school or teach CAD drafting or design classes, or a computer lab facing tight budgets, you can now get the software free without limitations. There is no catch or fine print or restrictions on use in school… [cont]

* Free Autodesk software and/or cloud-based services are subject to acceptance of and compliance with the terms and conditions of the software license agreement or terms of service that accompany such software or cloud-based services. Software and cloud-based services provided without charge to Education Community members may be used solely for purposes directly related to learning, teaching, training, research or development and shall not be used for commercial, professional or any other for-profit purposes

It randomly picks images from my Flickr or local machine and creates a new desktop image, montage or mosaic every few hours.

JBS is free software with a donation option if you want to support development enabling John to “buy some coffee to stay up late and crank out more features”. It already has many options including support for other web and social media image sources.

Of course being Windows 8.1* the Start Menu offers no respite as the same background is seen there!

Although this change seems trivial I’ve found it really improves the Windows 8.1 Start experience. With 8.0 the switch to Start was quite jarring, even disorienting, but that is fixed. It also means JBS goodness can be seen without visiting the desktop which—when using this hybrid in tablet mode—often isn’t necessary.

Wednesday, 27 March 2013

Autodesk have unveiled a new look Autodesk.com and announced their 2014 product updates. The new look Autodesk, hinted at earlier this month, comes with updates to existing products, new applications, revised industry specific Design Suites and Autodesk 360 Cloud Services.

Except they'll likely struggle with this requirement, unless lots of people buy them:

Not too expensive...

So I got a netbook?

There was nothing really close at the time, and an iPad didn’t cut it for me, so as a gap filler I got a Samsung Netbook. Yes, a netbook.

Many mock them but for blogging and mobile use, given the price, it really was quite OK. Windows 7 Starter meant it could run all the Windows apps I use for mail, blogging and RSS feed reading.

256GB storage allowed photo/media storage and the keyboard, if not quite full-size, was fine for bashing out a blog post, email or whatever. I was surprised it even coped with some fairly heavy duty photo editing like stitching 6 x 15 megapixel images into a panorama and running Office applications.

What it lacked was performance and screen size. pen, touch and the ability to run CAD to any degree due to limited processor, memory (2GB) and screen resolution.

Why iOS didn’t cut it:

The iPad transformed mobile computing in a way Microsoft’s Tablet OS failed to do but for me iOS has a couple of fatal flaws:

No integrated handwriting recognition, aka “ink”. If you’ve never used ink (handwriting recognition) on a Tablet PC you might wonder why I think it essential. The direct input/convert to text is almost irrelevant as the power of ink is background conversion. Making written notes searchable is a powerful ability.

Besides I had a hunch something better suited to my needs was coming along…

Enter Windows 8 and the hybrid UltraTabBook

Windows 8 brings iOS’like simplicity to touch operation with a massively powerful desktop application which happens to be what was once known as Windows. It really is two operating systems in one, something many find confusing.

The mix of mobile (8 metro) and PC (8 desktop) is best leveraged with a hybrid hardware capable of touch, keyboard/mouse or pen input. You (well I) can’t type much with an onscreen keyboard, precision pointing with a finger is not realistic, either is sketching with a finger or mouse. There are times when typing is the best input, others when writing on a flat tablet is more appropriate.

Break off the tablet and you have something which can replace an iPad (the big one), slap it in a dock and you have an ultra-book of sorts with SD storage, USB connectivity and HDMI output.

But which hybrid?

I checked out several but it came down to two options for me: Microsoft Surface Pro or Samsung ATIV Pro. The prime reason was other convertibles either run netbook type chips or are more like notebooks which split, spin or turn.

The Surface & ATIV are more like an iPad with superior keyboard dock and a real operating system. They have almost identical spec but you can’t get any official Microsoft Surface in NZ, even the RT, so that leaves the ATIV. Lets look back at that wish list from a couple of years ago and what the ATIV Smart PC offers:

Powerful processor ~i5 Pentium

Memory ~ 4GB system memory

Disk spec for CAD, BIM, Engineering Modelling ~ 128GB SSD, SD slot for up to 64GB more and a USB 3 port for up to (if you can afford it) another terabyte or so.

High quality separate graphics ~ High quality (HD) 1980 x 1080 yes but not separate. Maybe not such a big deal as on-board graphics have improved since i wrote that.

Touch, tablet like pen and voice interface ~ Touch Yes, Pen yes, and in app voice if you want. I hardly ever use as find both Apple & Microsoft voice input doesn’t cope well with my Kiwi akccint.

Full size keyboard with number pad, touch pad and stick ~ The hardware keyboard lacks a number keypad, touch screen almost makes the touch pad irrelevant and no need for a track stick

Power for decent mobile use (i.e 8 hours real work) ~ Samsung claim 5 – 8 hours for the ATIV. To date I’ve found nearer 6 than 8 for general use.

Not too compact - 17" screen minimum ~ Ok, so 11” isn’t exactly 17” but the resolution makes the smaller screen more tolerable. The main desire fro larger was a digital equivalent to that old A3 board, the ATIV is more akin to an A4 one.

Maybe even Windows 7 ~ When I wrote that there was speculation Microsoft might match iOS with a cut down OS based on Windows Phone. It turns out Windows 8 more like a new operating system with a Windows Desktop compatibility app for all those old programs!

So that was near enough me to plonk down the credit card…

First impressions of the ATIV

The Samsung unbox first impression doesn’t exactly match Apple. You get a fairly plain white box, same, with the hardware packed to keep it safe. Under the screen and keyboard was a box with power cord, transformer (nice & small) and a cleaning cloth. Documentation is a Quick Start Guide, Introduction to Windows 8 and Samsung Applications and consumer guarantee info. A bit surprising was a slip-sheet advising running software update before using the keyboard dock (with instructions on how to do that). There are no other adaptors, no mini-HDMI lead or a slip cover.

The packaging doesn’t match Apple and to be honest either does the first impression of build quality (or to be fair the price). The screen unit, which contains all the PC hardware, is plastic —rather than alloy—and sports the obligatory tacky Intel Inside & Windows 8 logo stickers. It is 304 x 190 x 12mm but tapered to about 5mm at the edges so appears thinner. The screen is 1920 x 1080 HD and has ten point touch sensitivity. The back has four surface vents (intake) and one small edge exhaust revealing it runs a chipset which needs cooling.

It is also quite heavy, Samsung quote 888 grams, but again that reflects all the hardware stuffed in there. You need not carry the keyboard if you don’t need it as Windows 8 offers two onscreen keyboards, std & split thumb layouts, and pen input without the dock.

It does get warm, not hot, but the internals are arranged to put the heat generation and exhaust away from where you typically hold it. The lower half is, according to a help diagram, mostly battery and the intakes are placed above where you hold the tablet. There is a bit of fan noise, not annoying though, when the chip is working hard but typical browsing is almost silent.

A couple of subtle grilles, about 3mm wide, on each side of the screen bezel hide stereo speakers capable of pretty decent output. Around the perimeter are ports for power/keyboard dock, USB 3, Mini HDMI, SD/MicroSD Card, Headphone & external mic and slim push button controls for power, screen rotation lock and volume. Also, hidden in a dock, is a pen with button erase for the Wacom tablet input. The tablet has built in mic and 2 megapixel front, 5 megapixel rear cameras.

The keyboard dock has real keys, with mechanical action, and a multi-touch track pad which allows you to work in true notebook mode if preferred. It has a nice action, familiar layout (from my netbook) and a mechanical latching dock hinge for the screen. One advantage of the ‘all in screen’ hardware is you can comfortably use it on your lap as there is no heat output from the base. Although stable you can tell there is a fair amount of mass in the screen making the balance, say when picking it up, different from a normal ultra book. I think Samsung missed an opportunity not putting an extra battery in the dock, something one Acer model has done. Perhaps they should consider that as a future offer.

The set-up was fairly painless but nearly all the Windows ‘Metro” and Samsung OEM Apps updated. Signing into my existing Microsoft account meant my settings, contacts, accounts and Windows Store apps appeared after a bit of streaming. One thing I discovered is once the SkyDrive Desktop app is installed you can copy the folder content from your other PC to speed the initial sync. This really used to upset Live Mesh but SkyDrive just acknowledged the files were there and synced changes from then on.

What 128GB SSD Storage means on an ATIV:

A recent blog storm on Microsoft Surface storage (or supposed lack of) questioned the space requirements for Windows 8. It was nicely debunked by Ed Bott but had me wondering about the ATIV. I don’t remember what I started with but have installed:

Windows 8 64

Microsoft Office Professional 2010

Microsoft Flight Simulator. This is my favourite ‘game’ and also a pretty good processor/graphics workout.

The result after that space is reported as disk size 116.32 GB, 57.89 GB free and I still have the Samsung Recovery Drive data there. You can clone that off to a USB Drive to free up more storage if things get tight.

A slight concern about power:

For now I’m settling in and the only real concern is a slightly flaky power connection when docked. As a tablet you can plug power directly into the screen but when docked that connector is hidden.

The dock has its own power input but the link to the screen (and therefore battery recharge) seems a bit sensitive and occasionally the power comes & goes. What is odd is there seems to be only one connector and the keyboard command link seems really solid irrespective of the power.

Life with ATIV:

From now on most of what you see here will be authored on the ATIV. Will report back on life with “My (nearly) perfect PC” as I learn more.

UPDATES in Red 02/12/2013: I took the machine back today as appears the power problem is real. Looks like a new dock might be needed. Is it a design fault or just poor Q.A.?

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

I’ve been using this app for a while and find it really does help get things done. NeatStreets combines smartphone geo-location, photos and social reporting to make it really easy to report community hazards. Categories include Litter, Graffiti, Flood Damage, Footpath, Parking, Potholes, Signage, Traffic & Street Lights, Trolleys & more.

For example: I noticed the summer heat had caused this bike path near my place to expand, crack & raise up. It is now about 100mm high and could be quite a hazard.

On the phone fire up NeatStreets, take a photo, geo-location pinpoints the spot (near enough or drag the pin on the map to refine), pick the type of report, add a bit of descriptive text, Send. All that takes a minute or two at most.

NeatStreets direct the report to the correct authority/organisation for the location & type of report. The recipients like it as get a detailed report, to send the correct response, and often have the NeatStreets response automated as part of their own incident management system.

You can see the reply and report status (fixed/not) on your phone or the NeatStreets website.

Reported, Sorted!

NeatStreets Australia and New Zealand

You can use it to report local defects in your neighbourhood - anything from broken footpaths and faulty streetlights to abandoned shopping trolleys. The service automatically keeps you informed of progress until the issue gets fixed.

UPDATE 2013-02-02: I contacted NeatStreets as noticed a minor typo in their “Tell a friend” message which will be fixed in the next update. Amusing that they noticed a typo I had missed — the red ‘t’ in first NeatStreets — in this post!